


You have suffered enough and warred with yourself

by EponineTheStrange (gallifreyandglowclouds)



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-06
Updated: 2013-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-14 04:05:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/832523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gallifreyandglowclouds/pseuds/EponineTheStrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Headcanon:  karen and matt go to see arthur’s show and they kiss quietly during falling slowly and arthur sees them and confronts them about it when they go backstage and matt blames karen</p>
            </blockquote>





	You have suffered enough and warred with yourself

When it turns out that Matt is going to be in New York for a long enough period of time that he might actually be able to hang out with Karen and Arthur and Aislinn, Karen and Aislinn exchange their tickets for  _Once_ so they can find a night where the three of them can go together. 

The issue is, however, that because the show is so popular, they get two seats and then there has to be the awkward loner who sits by himself or herself in the front row of the theatre. 

Aislinn offers to be the awkward loner. “I have always had a thing for looking up Arthur’s nostrils,” she says, over a glass of wine at the restaurant where they eat before the show. “I probably wouldn’t be dating him otherwise.” 

So Matt and Karen end up together, sitting in the top row of the balcony, and while it’s definitely lovely it’s a little awkward, because there’s a year of little communication and a lot of distance between the two of them. 

“So, Kazza,” he says turning to face her, “how are things?” 

“Good,” she replies. “Busy. You?” She literally has no idea what to say, because so much has happened since she last saw him in real life and not over Skype, and there are feelings and thoughts about him that she’s been having that need more than casual smalltalk while waiting for a play to start. 

He shrugs. “Ah, you know the drill. Film like mad, and then instead of having a summer break, I’m just filming some more.” 

“NIce haircut, by the way.” (She’s seen the pictures of him on set in Detroit. It’s not like she’s seen him without his shirt on a ton, but  _damn,_ he’s been working out since she last saw him.) 

He runs his hands over his buzzcut a bit self-consciously, and grimaces. “It’ll grow back.” 

“Really?” Karen says, and the lights are starting to dim, so she leans over and whispers in Matt’s ear, “I think I kind of like it, Matt.” 

He opens his mouth to reply, but the musical is starting so he kind of can’t. 

Arthur comes out on stage and does his first number, and Karen always knew he could sing but it’s entirely possible that it’s ten times better seeing him like this. She just feels so proud of both of her (poncho)boys - they’re off to bigger and brighter things and it makes her happy and sad at the same time, because both Matt and Arthur are insanely talented but also she doesn’t want to lose touch with them. 

Matt’s knee presses against hers, and they effectively sit shoulder to shoulder out of collectively stubborn desire not to give up the armrest between their seats. Here’s the thing - they always had a very physical (but friendly) relationship, and she’s only really realised recently how much she misses having that kind of intimacy with anyone else.

(But she also realises that it would probably be weird with anyone else, and that’s exclusively the domain of her and Matt.)  

As Guy and Girl finally meet onstage, Matt gently wraps her hand in his. He’s being casual about it, so she might as well be casual about it, though hey, hand-holding is nice. Karen can get behind hand-holding. 

Karen actually watched  _Once_ before she and Aislinn went on this crazy trip to New York, and ‘Falling Slowly’ was pretty much her favourite song in the whole movie, and she was really looking forward to watching Arthur perform it. 

(As it turns out, she’ll probably have to ask him to do an acoustic version sometime later.) 

Matt starts drawing little circles on the palm of her hand, and she can sort of feel the heat of his gaze upon her (as tacky as that seems). 

As the chorus begins, Karen turns to look at Matt, and even though it’s dark she can see that Matt’s got this look that’s combination of tenderness and a bit of lust and a pretty good helping of fear. 

Her heart starts to beat out a tap-dance rhythm in her chest, because this is new - yes, this is definitely new - and he starts to lean in towards her, and instinctively, she leans in towards him as well.

She wants to gasp or moan or make some kind of noise when their lips meet, but they’re in a theatre and that would be inappropriate. (More inappropriate than kissing in the middle of a play.) He rests one of his hands on her cheek, and rubs his thumb along her jawbone, and his hand comes to rest on his neck where she plays with the light fuzz of hair there. 

The angle is kind of awkward and wrong, because the armrest is sort of digging in to Karen’s hipbone, and she’s pretty sure that it’s going to leave a bruise, but she sort of doesn’t care because Matt is kissing her, which is equally as confusing as it is awesome. 

When they pull apart, and Karen sort of readjusts herself so that she’s not in imminent danger of being murdered by an armrest, he’s smiling at her - one of those weird, private smiles that he seems to reserve for her - and her ears are burning a little, but she’s smiling too because the giddy centre in her brain has just been overloaded. 

She rests her head on his shoulder, and he puts her arm around hers. 

(She sort of misses the rest of the musical.)

* * *

At the end of the show, she and Matt and Aislinn make their way backstage to go see and congratulate Arthur. 

The three of them crash in to his dressing room all at once, and there’s plenty of hugs and kisses and screamed ‘You were awesomes!’ 

They all sort themselves out, and Arthur leans against the door with an arm around Aislinn’s waist, and Karen’s successfully managed to commandeer the one chair in his whole dressing room. (His trailer on  _Who_ was much, much nicer.) 

“I am amazed,” Arthur says, looking at Matt who is standing beside Karen with an arm around her shoulders, “that you two had anything to say about the show, seeing as you mostly spent it making googly eyes at each other.” 

“We did not!” Karen yells, and then realises that oops, they kind of did. 

“And snogging.” Arthur says, shooting a knowing glance at Matt. 

“They snogged?” Aislinn shrieks. “I’ll be damned.” 

Matt just shrugs (the  _bastard_ ) and says, incredibly casually, “It was all Karen, really. Just couldn’t keep your hands off me, right Kaz?” 

She blushes scarlet and mumbles, “Come on guys, it was only one song.” 

Arthur and Aislinn laugh hysterically. (Karen realises that she only served to dig herself in to a far deeper hole with that statement.) 

The four of them go out for a drink or two (or four) after Arthur’s done with taking pictures and doing autographs for the legion fans waiting outside of the theatre. Karen’s pretty sure that Matt doesn’t take his hands off of her, and it’s not like he’s doing anything inappropriate, but she feels strongly that she wouldn’t want to get papped with his hand around her waist and her laughing in to his shoulder. 

(After the evening is said and done, Arthur and Aislinn are doing most of the googly eyes, and Karen decides that she’ll let them take over the hotel room that she and Aislinn are sharing, because they’re closer to their hotel than Arthur’s flat. Plus, it means she gets to stay with Matt. 

He kisses her in the elevator, which is pretty good. He also kisses the bruise on her hipbone left by the armrest in the theatre, which is even better.)


End file.
